This letter was published in our latest "print"
edition. This newspaper is mailed into over 160 prisons.

By Nora Callahan

To coin a phrase from Dr. Beresford-stay cool, the end of
the Drug War is coming. I know, I know, not fast enough for any
one of us, and especially those of you who are in prison. It
didn't take a day for our country to get into this terrible mess,
and it is not going to end in a day either. I wish I could tell
you when, but all I can say with surety is that there are certainly
a lot of people working heart and soul to bring the curtain down
on this terrible era and bring you home.

I want to thank all of you who have donated money, time and
material to our website, this newspaper and our efforts entire.
Many state drug war prisoners are sending stamps and we thank
you for that important donation too - we use a lot of them!

We are "on the map" now and moving forward, thanks
to all of you who have chosen to climb aboard. We have a long
haul ahead, lots of planning and implementing to do.

Please take note of the membership form on page 17. For you
inside, all it will require is a stamp and envelope and a moment's
time-not a dime. Your donations are appreciated however, much
needed and have been put to good work. If you have written a
personal letter to us - your name is secure within our database.
If you haven't written, be sure to fill this out and send it
in or you will be deleted. Bulk mail doesn't get returned, so
this is our only way of knowing if you are where we think you
are. We've gathered our mailing list primarily from personal
correspondence, but some are receiving it because your name,and
address was given to us. If you would like to be a member of
our Coalition, please fill out this form and return it.

Those on the outside of walls and wire - we need your financial
and volunteer support. To date, a great deal of our donations
have come from drug war prisoners who make about 30¢ an
hour. Our outside mailing list has come primarily from prisoners
who have submitted your information in hopes that you might help
them have a voice in drug policy reform. If you would like to
join our efforts or simply support the men and women who have
sent us your names and addresses, please take the time to fill
out the form on page 17 and make a donation to our organization.
[Net readers can click here
to find out how to join and support our efforts.]

We have been incorporated and our nonprofit status should
be complete in the near future. If you need a receipt for having
made a tax deductible donation, let us know. We haven't received
a determination letter from the IRS as of yet, so can not promise
that your donation will be deductible.

It is hard to ask for money, especially knowing that most
of our members are, to put it mildly, economically disadvantaged.
But, if we are going to be a viable voice in the call for reform,
we are going to need it. It takes money to get our booth around
the northwest, and we have goals to have many of these booths
out there telling of drug war prisoners and their family's sufferings.
It takes money to print and publish, it takes money to get us
to speaking engagements . . .

Keeping up with all the correspondence has been keeping us
busy, bear with us-there have been hundreds and hundreds of letters!
Continue to send us your stories and photographs-of a family
visit if possible, but if you don't have one with your family,
a photo of yourself is fine. We can post your address if you
would like correspondence, but we aren't a pen-pal service alone.
If we can put a face and some heart to drug war prisoners, perhaps
we can show this country what a terrible mistake it is to shut
you away for years and years. Please try to be brief, but take
the time to explain any absurdity in your case. You will receive
a copy of your website page and your photograph back. This process
takes us a while, but we do return them.

For all you who have sent literary and artistic contributions,
we want you to know they are being
posted on our website as fast as we can manage. I have been amazed
and the vast amount of talent and heart that our government has
trapped inside it's prisons. Keep up the good work and let this
country become amazed and dismayed as well.

Our battle is to take this issue to the people-show them the
waste, the destruction. We absolutely must build public sentiment
to a fevered pitch - or the War will simply continue to wreck
havoc. We have made a good beginning, no turning back now-it
is time to end the War in America!